


"My Fault"

by KarmicCombustion



Category: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Platonic Cuddling, Platonic Relationships, Spoilers, trauma mention
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-24
Updated: 2020-02-24
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:54:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 852
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22872082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KarmicCombustion/pseuds/KarmicCombustion
Summary: After seeing the carnage that had been wrought on her kingdom, Rapunzel reluctantly followed Eugene back to their new shelter. Hopefully a temporary shelter. Her head hung low, her chest cold and tight with despair. What hurt her the most was that they’d been so close. So painfully close.(Varian feels responsible for Cass turning on them, and Rapunzel comforts him.)
Relationships: Rapunzel & Varian (Disney)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 159





	"My Fault"

**Author's Note:**

> I just needed closure after the end of the newest episode, "Once a Handmaiden." After his past experiences with the amber, I can't imagine him not having some mild PTSD reaction to what happened with Cass, and I don't really expect the writers to address any of his trauma in what little time is left.
> 
> So, enjoy a drabble!

After seeing the carnage that had been wrought on her kingdom, Rapunzel reluctantly followed Eugene back to their new shelter. Hopefully a _temporary_ shelter. Her head hung low, her chest cold and tight with despair. What hurt her the most was that they’d been so close. So painfully close.

Varian knew just how close too, and Rapnuzel wasn’t the only one with regrets. They all were, but _he_ was the one responsible. When he heard her and Eugene return, he curled up tighter as he sat on the floor in front of the fireplace, the flame ebbing as it ate away at its fuel. He couldn’t face her. Not after that disaster.

Before he could make up his mind about retreating somewhere else to think in solitude, he felt her presence without her even speaking. She sat beside him, and he felt as if he’d turned to stone. His muscles tightened as he hugged his knees, tense and nerve-wracked. With his eyes shut tightly, he braced himself for the worst.

“Are you okay?”

The shock on his face was visible as he lifted his head and turned to her, baby blues wide and glistening with the threat of tears. “Wh-… what?”

Weak as it was, she offered a comforting smile as she wrapped an arm around his shoulder. She was hurting, yes; she’d lost Cassandra, maybe forever, yes… but that didn’t mean she could turn her back on the friends she still had. She gave him an encouraging squeeze, letting him decide whether or not to speak.

He shuddered, choking back his feelings as best he could. “I thought you’d be furious,” he murmured, barely audible even over the quiet cracking of the fire. “Princess, I’m-… I’m so sorry…”

“It’s okay, Varian,” she assured him after a long sigh. “You meant well.”

“I _always_ mean well,” he snapped suddenly, surprising her as he straightened up in his sitting position. His voice was beginning to crack and break, the heat in his eyes stinging more and more by the second. “But- b-but good intentions don’t mean _anything_ now! I-… you were right. Project Obsidian-”

“Was approved by me,” she cut in, squeezing his shoulder. “I signed the order.”

“But it was _my_ invention. It was _my_ idea, _my_ faulty design…” He hiccuped a bit as he tried and failed to swallow down the growing lump in his throat. “And… and _my_ fault. When the gun fired and Cass was trapped in the amber… a-all I could see was-”

_My dad._

He trailed off, his lip beginning to tremble as he bit down to try and steel himself. But it was too late: all those horrible memories, those toxic feelings, started bubbling to the surface faster than he could try and stifle. His shoulders heaved, his chest and his throat wracked by strangled sobs as he covered his eyes in shame.

Rapunzel’s brows pinched in sorrow, her lips pursing into a frown. She hadn’t even considered that. Hadn’t thought about just how much of his own pain and trauma he’d set aside for the good of Corona. First with the red rocks, and now this. But this time his solution had done more harm than good. Again. 

Without much warning, almost on impulse, she threw both arms around him and pulled him into a tight hug. At first he stiffened, his breath freezing and turning to nothing in his lungs as his face buried against her shoulder. After a moment, he raised shaking hands to clutch the fabric of her dress at her back, and finally allowed himself the freedom to cry.

“It was an accident,” Rapunzel whispered soothingly, combing through his hair with her fingers.

“ _So what_?” His voice was barely more than a whimper. “I-I can never do a-anything right,” he stuttered, his words broken up by his gasping breaths.

“But you _have_ ,” she insisted, holding him close and all but rocking him back and forth in her arms. “You’ve done so much good. You helped defeat the Saporians, stopped the red rocks, deciphered the Demanitus scroll… you’ve already proven yourself enough.”

Was that what he was trying to do? Prove himself? Maybe. Or maybe he was still trying to make up for all the damage he’d done and all the harm he’d inflicted. Things could’ve been so different if not for him. 

“I just want to make things right…”

Only now did Rapunzel separate from him, and only so she could look him in the eyes as she held his shoulders. “ _We’ll_ make things right,” she told him, brushing a bit of straying hair from his eyes. “All of us. _Together_.”

He sniffed softly, his gaze wavering as a few tears continued to streak down his freckled cheeks. Then he dragged his sleeve across his face to dry his eyes and try to regain his composure. Taking a deep breath, he shivered out a sigh and forced himself to return her timid, patient smile.

“So,” she began, attempting to lighten the mood, “I’ll ask again. _Are you okay_?”

“I will be,” he assured her with a broken chuckle. “Thank you, Rapunzel.”


End file.
